NO. 7

For years I’ve been told to keep a blog.

I’ve tried multiple times. Six different times, to be exact. Despite the many times I’ve heard famous writers and authors say something along the lines of, “The best thing I ever did was start a blog,” or, “I wish I would have started a blog earlier in my career,” I have still never been able to keep up.

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time.

It hit me really hard when I went to a writing retreat with one of my favorite writers, Jeff Benedict. This man has written books, been published by Time and Sports Illustrated, and ghost written memoirs of amazing people. Through my eyes, Jeff Benedict has the best job in the world. I got to spend a considerable amount of time picking his brain, listening to stories, having my writing critiqued, and talking sports. It is an experience that I will be grateful for until I die.

But of everything we talked about, the one thing that stuck out to me was his passion for his blog. He exhorted all of us in attendance to start a blog, keep a blog, do whatever, as long as we were consistently writing and publishing consistently.

I love writing. It comes fairly natural to me and feels liberating to write down (or type) my thoughts. I look forward to writing reports and research articles in school because I know I will get an A.

So why can’t I keep a blog going? Why do I struggle to leisurely write, especially when I have been told countless times that it is one of the most beneficial things I can do?

For a writer, this shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, this has led to considerable amounts of discouragement and self-doubt. Of all the professions and trades in this world, the last person to struggle finding inspiration in this world to write about should be journalist, right?

I don’t know. But I’m not going to spend any more time worrying about it, either.

I’m just going to start a blog for a seventh time.